Archive for February 22nd, 2011

Paradox of the Crowds

A Fortnightcap by DL Thurston

“Of the what?”

“The crowds. Paradox of the crowds.” He walked through a lab that was strewn with equipment, some of it burned out, some blinking, some new in box. Past the computers, past the camera, past the schematics. “Look,” he said, finding an empty space of white board he drew a circle. “There are some events that are considered historic events, we can agree on that, right?”

“Right.”

“And one of the reasons you want to invent time travel is so you can see some of them?” He drew a line pointing in to the circle.

“Well, it’s not the only reason, but–”

“But you do want to see them. So if you want to see them, why wouldn’t some other time traveler? Or hundreds? Or thousands?” Line after line, until the circle resembled some deformed spider. “If time travel is ever invented at some future point, we’d see massive crowds of people showing up to witness these historic events. But they’re just not there. Therefore time travel won’t ever be invented. Not by you, not by anyone.”

The inventor’s face fell for a moment. Then rose again. “Disco demolition night.”

“What?”

“1979, the death of disco. The Chicago White Sox hosted a double header, planning to destroy any disco record the fans would bring between the two games. Nearly 100,000 people showed up. An impossibly big crowd for that kind of event.”

“Why would time travelers want to see that?”

“It’s infamous. Be a part of one of the worst ideas in baseball history!” He was waving his arms around, excited now. “The inauguration of Barack Obama. First black president. Impossibly huge crowds that choked the Mall, and then were gone. Surely there could have been a few visitors from out of time, not just out of town.”

“I don’t think–”

“No you don’t! You just find reasons why not!”

“Look, if you want to keep up with this insanity, be my guest. I’m not going to be part of it.”

The inventor watched as his visitor left, then got back to work on the pieces scattered around his lab. The crowd, watching from a distance, cheered then quietly dispersed.